HELPMAKE Help (helpmake.hlp) (Table of Contents; Topic list)
Important Notice
The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.
QuickHelp Format
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─────QuickHelp Format───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     QuickHelp format is the default source-file format. It is also the
     format HELPMAKE uses when it decodes existing help databases. Use
     a text editor to create a QuickHelp-format help text file.
 
     A QuickHelp-format file is an ASCII file in which you can embed a
     variety of special codes to define context strings, set up links
     between topics, and control the display and format of topic text.
     To create or modify a QuickHelp-format file, you can use any text
     editor or word processor that can output ASCII files.
 
     Each context consists of a line with a period character (.),
     followed by the word "context", followed by the context string.
     For example,
 
          .context strtod
 
     associates the string "strtod" with the section of text that
     follows it.
 
     Formatting flags are used to highlight parts of the help text and
     to mark links in the help text. Each formatting flag consists of a
     backslash character (\) followed by a single character.
 
     NOTE: To insert a backslash character without having it
           interpreted as a formatting flag, use two backslash
           characters (\\).
 
     The following flags are used to highlight text:
 
     Flag     Action
 
     \b       Turns boldface on or off
     \i       Turns italic on or off
     \p       Turns off all attributes
     \u       Turns underlining on or off
 
     See: Using Formatting Flags to Highlight Text
 
     Two formatting flags are used to define explicit links:
 
     Flag     Action
 
     \a       Anchors text-defining hot spots
     \v       Turns invisibility on or off
 
     See: Using Formatting Flags for Links
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